A59693:361
Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II.…
Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II. Change, III. Beginning. IV. Sanctification, are clearly discussed, which were first handled more largely in sundry sermons in Cambridge in New-England in opening of the Fourth Commandment : in unfolding whereof many scriptures are cleared, divers cases of conscience resolved, and the moral law as a rule of life to a believer, occasionally and distinctly handled / by Thomas Shepard ...Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II. Change, III. Beginning. IV. Sanctification, are clearly discussed, which were first handled more largely in sundry sermons in Cambridge in New-England in opening of the Fourth COmmandment : in unfolding whereof many scriptures are cleared, divers cases of conscience resolved, and the morall law as a rule of life to a believer, occasionally and distinctly handled / by Thomas Shepard ...
London: printed by T.R. and E.M. for John Rothwell, 1650
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But this first evidence is not without the being of faith and holiness; for then it should be to a man actually under the power of sin and his filthy lusts and the devil; which hath been already proved in the former Thesis to be a mere delusion: there being no such word of the Gospel which reveals Gods free love and actual reconciliation to a sinner as a sinner, and as under the power of his sins, but the Gospel rather reveals the quite contrary; and to affirm the witness of the Spirit clears this up, is to pretend a testimony of the Spirit ⟨p. 220⟩contrary to the testimony of the world; and yet I strongly fear and do fully believe that this is the first evidence which some men plead for, viz. to see Gods love toward them, while they neither see grace or any change of heart in them: or have grace, but are still under the dominion of their sin.
But this first evidence is not without the being of faith and holinesse; for then it should be to a man actually under the power of sin and his filthy lusts and the devil; which hath been already proved in the former Thesis to be a meer delusion: there being no such word of the Gospel which reveals Gods free love and actual reconciliation to a sinner as a sinner, and as under the power of his sins, but the Gospel rather reveals the quite contrary; and to affirm the witnesse of the Spirit clears this up, is to pretend a testimony of the Spirit ⟨p. 220⟩contrary to the testimony of the world; and yet I strongly fear and do fully beleeve that this is the first evidence which some men plead for, viz. to see Gods love toward them, while they neither see grace or any change of heart in them: or have grace, but are still under the dominion of their sin.
And on the other side, if any affirm that this evidence is not without the being of grace but only without the seeing of it: so that a Christians first evidence is the seeing of Gods free grace out of himself, without seeing any faith or grace in himself, and seeing nothing else but sin in himself, this I confess is nearer the truth, but it is an error which leads a man to a precipice and near unto the pit: for if this be so, then these things will unavoidably follow.